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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29637912">Pink Paint</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thistreasurehunter/pseuds/thistreasurehunter'>thistreasurehunter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Canon Compliant Homophobia, Introspection, M/M, Masturbation, Period-Typical Homophobia, Season 2 Dave, Sexuality Crisis, Shame</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:54:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,520</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29637912</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thistreasurehunter/pseuds/thistreasurehunter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A young, confused Dave reflects on his interactions with the beautiful stranger who bought pink paint.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Pink Paint</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookyfbi/gifts">spookyfbi</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the following request:</p><p>  </p><p><strong>A/N:</strong> Set in the season 2 timeline, between Dave’s visit to the mansion and the time he got on the bus.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dave shifted restlessly and rolled over again. The sheet twisted under him and he wiggled until he could release it and pull it up over his shoulder. The quiet of the night pressed against him but his thoughts continued to race. <em>I know you.</em> He could hear a clock ticking somewhere downstairs. He flipped the pillow over to the cool side. <em>I know you.</em> The clock kept ticking. Down the hall, soft snores came from his uncle’s room. <em>I love you.</em> He shifted onto an elbow and punched his pillow into a more comfortable position. <em>And someday…</em> He sighed and rolled onto his back. He brought his hands up and scrubbed them furiously across his face. <em>Someday, you’ll love me too…</em></p><p>Dave opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, giving up on the thought of sleep.</p><p>It was a joke… or a trick… or a scam… or <em>something</em>… It had to be. There is no way – <em>absolutely no way</em> – that the man from the store, the guy who came in to buy pink paint – <em>Klaus Hargreeves</em> – could actually be what he said he was. There’s no way he could actually have lived in the future. That’s just… beyond ridiculous.</p><p>Dave gave a deep sigh and closed his eyes again.</p><p>Yeah. That’s it. It was all a trick. Because time-travel isn’t possible. And all that stuff he said about, well, about the two of them… and what they become… what they end up meaning to each other… No, thought Dave. It must all be part of the scam. It must be part of whatever angle Klaus was working. Dave didn’t know what that could be…</p><p>Maybe, Dave thought, maybe Klaus got the idea after the first time he came in the store? Maybe he suspected something. Had Dave done something to give off a vibe? Was it because he suggested <em>pink</em> paint? Was it based on anything? Or was it just a stab in the dark that had happened to hit the mark?</p><p>Maybe Klaus was trying to trick Dave into admitting something. Maybe he was trying to draw him in with his flamboyance, he sincere words, his handsome face. Maybe he was playing Dave. Maybe he was doing anything he could to make Dave admit, on some level, that what he was saying could be true…? Entertaining the possibility and thereby indirectly confirming his – Dave coughed uncomfortably – <em>particular interests.</em></p><p>Maybe he was waiting for Dave to slip up and then he’d laugh and point in Dave’s face and gloat <em>got you! Made you admit it! Queer!</em> Maybe he was working with his uncle…? Maybe they were in it together?</p><p>Dave frowned. No, he thought, just no. What would be the point of that? What would either of them gain from that? He was just catastrophising now.</p><p>So, maybe it wasn’t anything to do with his uncle. But that didn’t mean Klaus wasn’t still trying to scam him on his own. Solo.</p><p>If the incident had been contained only to the diner, then Dave would find it easier to believe that Klaus was trying to call him out in front of his uncle. But he hadn’t just done it in the diner, he’d kept it up even when Dave went to see him at the… mansion compound. And there hadn’t been anyone else around then but his… <em>followers.</em></p><p>Also… just think of his hair! His clothes! That would have been a lot of effort to go too to appear – Dave sighed again – <em>queer.</em> So maybe Klaus wasn’t pretending to be something to try to get Dave to admit it too. Maybe Klaus just <em>was… that.</em></p><p>So what could his angle be? Maybe he was trying to get Dave to do something for him. Some kind of – in the dark of his room, Dave still blushed – sexual thing for him. But Klaus hadn’t said anything like that, hadn’t even hinted at that. What had he actually said? He’d asked – well he’d begged – Dave not to enlist. That was all.</p><p>And that was another thing – those dog tags. That was such an extreme length to go to for a prank, or a joke, or a scam. It didn’t really seem like he needed to start recruiting. He was surrounded by people who literally worshiped him. Why would he go to <em>sooooo</em> much trouble to warn Dave not to enlist? There seemed no logical sense to it.</p><p>
So maybe… maybe… – Dave took a deep breath, trying to ground himself – maybe it wasn’t a scam…
</p><p>
Maybe the only logical conclusion was that Klaus really had come from the future, that he really had known Dave, that he really did know when and how Dave would die? Maybe he really was someone who’d seen his friend killed and had later found a way to come back to try to help him? It felt almost beyond belief, but at the same time, also felt… right.
</p><p>
<em>I mean,</em> Dave thought uneasily, <em>he did seem to know a lot about me.</em> Most of it was true. He did get his uncle’s name wrong and talked about a book that Dave had never heard of… but, maybe that’s the kind of thing that someone who could time travel would get wrong. Maybe it’s easy to forget what someone you know in the future, knows about themselves at the time you go back in the past to speak to them. Maybe you would forget the name of an uncle if the last time you heard the name was years in the future, in the middle of a war. It’s not like you’d be taking notes. A con artist would probably have made sure to get details like that correct. So maybe it really was true…
</p><p>
But what had Dave done? He’d punched him and thrown his kindness back in his face.
</p><p>
Dave started to feel sick.
</p><p>
Also, Klaus hadn’t said they were just friends, he’d said he <em>loved</em> him and that Dave had loved Klaus back.
</p><p>
Dave swallowed thickly. If he was going to love a man, Dave thought, he wouldn’t be too surprised to find out it was someone like Klaus. That man was just breathtakingly beautiful. Dave closed his eyes and pictured him again: his big green eyes and dark lashes, his thin frame and sun-kissed skin, the juxtaposition of his physical fragility and his strength of character. Dave sighed. Klaus had seemed so confident in who he was and of his right to exist in the world. But then he had looked at Dave and Dave thought he saw him shrink before his eyes. He had pulled his sleeves down over his hands and curled his shoulders inward, as though trying to make himself seem as small and unimposing as possible. He looked fragile. Delicate. Breakable. <em>Broken?</em> Behind the confidence, his body language seemed to plead: <em>please hold me.</em> And despite every poisonous word that had been poured into him during his life, Dave had wanted to. Had longed to, even.
</p><p>
Yes, out of everything Klaus had said, the notion that a future version of himself falls in love with someone like Klaus was the least unlikely scenario.
</p><p>
Dave sighed and shifted again. Thinking about Klaus in that way had caused a stirring between his legs. He breathed deeply and willed the feelings away. He really did try.
</p><p>
But the image of Klaus came back to him – his big, pleading eyes, his plump lips, his narrow waist, his… Dave took a shuddering breath… his deliciously curved ass…
</p><p>
It was no good. Dave was fully hard now and the willpower it took to resist taking himself in hand was beyond even his control.
</p><p>
Slowly, almost reluctantly, he slipped his hand down beneath the sheets.
</p><p>
<em>I’m just… dealing with the problem,</em> Dave thought to himself. <em>Just getting the inevitable over with so I can finally get to sleep.</em> He honestly tried to convince himself that.
</p><p>
He started with a firm, brisk pace, almost bordering rough. Something to just get him there as quickly as possible. He tried to clear his mind. He really did.
</p><p>
But then Klaus was there again. A breathtakingly beautiful mirage. A seductive temptation. A heart-breaking hope.
</p><p>
 What if it was true? What if there really was a future waiting for him with Klaus? A future where he could look deep into those hypnotic green eyes and reach out and cup Klaus’ cheek and feel him warm and soft and real in his hand. A future where he could lean forwards and tilt his head and kiss him… A future where they could take that kiss further…
</p><p>
 With a twisting jolt, Dave’s pleasure crested and he curled forwards, jaw clenched, and shuddered his release onto his flat, pale stomach. The soft grunt he let slip sounded painfully loud in the silence of the sleeping house.
</p><p>
Dave took a deep, shaking breath. He closed his eyes. As his heart-rate returned to normal and the cum began to cool and dry on his skin, Dave let the feelings wash over him. The shame and confusion and fear and desire and – above all – hope.
</p><p>
Downstairs, the clock ticked on.
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Kudos and comments make my day! ☂️</p><p>Link to my tumblr: <a href="https://yeah-klave.tumblr.com/">@yeah-klave</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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